Colleges, universities may soon have to use common course numbering system

Stephen Green

Published 4:15 pm, Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A renewed attempt to create uniform course numbers in universities and colleges is back in the Texas Legislature.

House Bill 61, filed by state Rep. Ruth “R.J.” McClendon, D-San Antonio, requires all universities and colleges to adhere to a uniform course numbering system for the first two years of a student’s academic career. This means that freshman and sophomore level classes would have the same number at every public institution of higher education.

McClendon spoke on the same bill in the last legislative session, HB 82, that never reached the House floor for a vote. That bill passed unanimously, with one revision, out of the House Higher Education Committee in 2013.

“The goal of this bill is to align the courses at community colleges with those at universities, especially at the freshman and sophomore levels,” McClendon said in 2013. “An English 1301 course at a community college should have the same value or the same number at 1301 at all state universities. The common course numbering system should be made available by the coordinating board at all information portals and course catalogs for public access, not just published on a single website.”

Most colleges and universities already voluntarily use the Texas Common Course Numbering System, but it isn’t mandatory. Some colleges, such as The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, use their own type of course numbering.

For example, a poultry science class in the common course system is registered as AGRI 1327. Under the TAMU course numbering system, it’s POSC 201 “General Avian Science.”

Advocates for a single numbering system say that the confusion between different institutions not only can cost time, but also money.

If a student takes one class at a community college, it may not be accepted by the public institution under the student’s new degree plan after transferring. This requires the student to take an additional class, and sometimes that means another college semester.

Those wanting the single system are mainly want to make the transfer process easier for students moving from the community college level to universities.

A student might ask a college adviser what classes he or she needs to take to go to a specific college under a specific degree track. If HB 61 passes, advisers would be able to seamlessly compare courses and degree paths for the first two years between the schools.

Universities that fought the measure said it would put an undue cost on them to revise their current system to match the new course numbering system. The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University were exempt from the committee’s substitute bill that made it out of committee in 2013.